NASCAR's Mike Forde gives update on potential playoff format changes for 2026 season

Mike Forde, NASCAR’s managing director of racing communications, revealed on Wednesday’s “Hauler Talk” podcast that the playoff committee will have one final meeting next week. Forde said the plan will be to “discuss the shortlist of potential formats” before whittling it down to “one final format.”

“We’re getting very close. We have a final playoff committee meeting, which I’m on that committee. That is coming next week, mid-week next week,” Forde said. “I think the plan for that meeting is to discuss the shortlist of potential formats and get the playoff committee’s opinion on all that. We’ll go through that process, and then hopefully, make a determination of an even shorter list until we can whittle it down to one final format. NASCAR will decide to move forward and we may see something as soon as 2026. More to come on that and hopefully, we have news that fans will really like. 

“… The whole reason we have this playoff committee is because of fan feedback and there was a large contingent of fans that gave the feedback that we need a different format. I think where we’re heading here is a format that will be embraced by fans and hopefully once we have an announcement here, whenever that is, fans will feel good about it.”

NASCAR put together a playoff committee consisting of former drivers, media partners, team owners, manufacturers, track representatives and independent media to determine if the playoff should change in 2026, such as potentially doing away with the one-race finale. The format has largely stayed status quo since its inception in 2014. In 2017, stage racing and playoff points were introduced — other than that, nothing has changed.

NASCAR playoff format could look different in 2026

But after Joey Logano‘s victory in the championship race at Phoenix Raceway this past season, in which the Team Penske driver captured his third title with an average finish of 17.1 — the worst for a driver in a championship-winning season — the cries to change the playoff format have been loud. With the 2025 playoffs already underway and the 2026 schedule revealed, NASCAR is under some pressure to decide what the playoff format will look like next season.

NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell told Eric Estepp that they are in the “final processes” of determining what 2026 will look like. O’Donnell mentioned that if they stick to the status quo, “there’s got to be a pretty good explanation as to why.”

“We are kind of in the final processes,” O’Donnell said last month. “We’ve tried to talk to as many of the stakeholder groups as possible, we have a couple more of those conversations to have. And I think for us, the decisions are going to be do you immediately put something in the Cup Series? Do you try something around next year’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Truck Series? Do you try three different things? Most sports are like, ‘Let’s try this in Triple-A baseball and if it works, great. If we want to tweak it, OK, let’s make those tweaks and put it to the next level.’ We’ve historically not done that. So, we’re just going to try to beat up a lot of those things.

“I will say that if we stay status quo and don’t do anything in all three series, there’s got to be a pretty good explanation as to why and to who we spoke to. But there is some momentum to try some things, for sure. I think you’ll see that. I don’t have the final answer yet, but I can assure the fans there’s been a lot of really good debate, a lot of things to think through.”